Temporarily effective alarm stopping mechanism for alarm clocks and the like



y 1955 H JUNGHANS ETAL 2,707,370

TEMPORARILY EFFECTIVE ALARM STOPPING MECHANISM FOR ALARM CLOCKS AND THELIKE Filed Oct. 24, 1951 Twas/viva: A/ELMUT flue/Ian's Ann-aw 6C9):

ire drama TEMPQRARlLY EFFEQTEVE ALARM S'FGPPENG MECHANISM FGR (JLQBCKF,AND LIKE Application ()ctoher 24, 13 51 Serial No. 252,332

2. Claims. (Cl. 58 m) The present invention relates to chronometersprovided with a release-gear, and more particularly relates to alarmclocks.

It is the purpose of the invention to provide a mechanism enabling therelease gear to be set to any point of time at any hour. The usual typesof alarm clocks do not permit setting the clock e. g. to 6 at sixocloclt in the evening and winding it up immediately, for the socalledalarm fusee or cam resets the click spring to the locking position onlyafter 1 to 1 /2 hours.

The present invention solves this problem by the provision of a. memberhereinafter designated as a bridging member and having the purpose ofbringing about a premature locking condition, as far as the controlmembers themselves have not restored this condition; the bridging memberwhich is subjected to a retractive force is operatively connected withthe control members only for the time of bridging. it has been found tobe advantageous to cause the bridging member to cooperate itself withthe release gear. Nevertheless the bridging member can also cooperatewith one of the control members for the release gear. in a preferredembodiment of the invention for alarm clocks, the bridging member isshaped as a lever rockably mounted on a fixed member and subjected tothe influence of a retracting spring, said lever having a deflectingface in order to move the click spring into the locking position, andbeing provided with a notch for the purpose of engaging with the clickspring in the locking position, the click spring to this effect beingprovided with a nose; the notch has only such depth as to cause the noseto disengage from it for releasing the bridging member, when thecontrolling means have again been positioned to assume the lockingfunction.

According to a further characteristic of the present invention, theconventional stop mechanism for the alarm may serve to operate thebridging member. This is of advantage in so far as in winding up thealarm at the moment of ringing or shortly afterwards, i. e. at a momentwhen the alarm fusee or cam has not yet returned the alarm click springto the locking position, the alarm may be wound up without being soundedmerely by previously pressing down the stop. in this way the ridgingmember will be operated, returning the click spring of the alarm to thelocking position and engaging with it. After the click spring hasengaged the lever to hold the latter, the step may be immediatelyreleased; in the event of a conventional type of stop engaging with amember of the alarm mechanism, it will be automatically released afterhaving been actuated by winding up the alarm, returning to itsinoperative position.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention resultfrom the following description of a preferred embodiment as well as fromthe accompanying drawing illustrating an embodiment of the invention,omitting for the sake of clarity the conventional mechanism existing inall types of alarm clocks, as far as it is not necessary for theexplanation of the invention atet ice

in the drawing:

' l and 2 show a side view and a front view of mechanism for setting,releasing and stopping the a position where the normal controlling meanshave returned the release gear to the locking position;

Figures 3 4 show in a manner similar to Figures 1 and 2 the positionwhere immediately after the release of the alarm the release spring islocked by the bridging member according to the invention; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary, sectional view taken along the line 55 of Fig.2 and on an enlarged scale.

Referring to the drawing, 1 indicates the front plate of the alarmmechanism bearing the adjusting rod or spindle 2 of the alarm; 3indicates the alarm wheel or gear having a bushing or hub 3a which isrotatable and axially movable on the rod or spindle 2. An alarm fusee orcam #5 is fixed on the gear or wheel 3 and engages an alarm pin :3projecting from the rod 2. The illustrated structure also includes analarm click spring 6 having a lateral projection st, which preventsmovement of the alarm hammer when the spring 6 is moved toward the frontplate 1. The spring 6 is disposed between plate ii and alarm gear 3 andis yieldably urged in the direction toward the latter.

Furthermore, the alarm clock contains a stop mechanism of the kinddisclosed in United States Letters Patent in. 2,235,586, issued March18, 1941 to Helmut Junghans, and which comprises a stop button 7 havinga stud 8 eugageable from above with a stop lever 9, pivoted at 9n, and astop ari ii secured to the shaft 10 carrying the usual hammer ltiu. Stoparm 11 is provided with a latch lla engagesble with the stop lever 9, asshown in Fig. As in the device disclosed in the above identified patent,a pallet lever 13 is secured to shaft 10 and engages escapement wheel 41which is suitably driven by an alarm spring 15 (Fig. 4), and anunwinding lock 16 preferably extends from stop arm 11 and projects intothe path of unwinding of the convolutions of spring 15 so that, when thealarm spring is unwound to a predetermined exteut, it engages loci: i6and thereby prevents further rocking of shaft 10 to stop the operationof hammer In addition to these parts that are necessary for a normaloperation of the alarm, a bridglever 12 is re ably mounted outside thefront plate 1 for swinging about the pivot 17. The bridging member isunder tne influence of a torsion spring 18 (Fig. 2) tending to lift itupwards i. e. in the direction of the stop button. The bridging lever isprovided with a tongue 12a bent at a right angle, to be engaged fromabove by the stop lever 9 so that it will be moved when the stop leveris pressed down. The forward end 12b of the bridging lever is withinreach of the upper bend of the alarm click spring 6 and the latterprovided with a nose 6!), the lever end 12b having an inclined face anda notch 12d (Fig. 5). The inclined face at the lever end 121) isintended to engage the nose 6!) for moving the click spring in thedirection toward the front plate when the bridging lever is presseddown, and the notch 12d is operative to receive the nose oh, so that thespring 6 prevents upward movement of the lever 12 so long as the nose6!: is engaged in the notch 12d. The bridging lever 12 is closelyadjacent to the front face of the front plate It so as to move the nose6a of the click spring 6 into the locking position, i. e. into the sameposition into which the cam cooperating with the pin 5 moves the clickspring when the cam is disposed so that the pin 5 rides on the straightportion of the earn; as is known, the nose 6a in the loclting positionis beneath (occasionally above) the stop arm 11 at the hammer rod 10(see Figures 1 and 2).

The mechanism operates as follows:

(1) Control by the alarm cam This function being known, it may only bementioned that when the clock is running down the alarm wheel 3 isturned. When the alarm wheel or gear 3 has been turned to position therecessed part of the cam surface for reception of the pin 5, the gearand spring 6 move away from plate 1 to release the alarm. The releasehaving taken place (Figure 3), it will still take 1 to 1 /2 hours untilthe alarm wheel 3 and the alarm cam have been turned to such a degreethat the pin advances along the inclined face 4a until arriving on thefiat portion (Figure 1) for again disposing the spring 6 in its lockingposition. Only in this relative position of the alarm pin and the alarmcam will the click spring 6 be moved by the bushing 3a of the alarm geartowards the front plate 1 so that the nose 6a can lock the stop arm 11.

(2) Bridging In order to stop the alarm at the moment of release orshortly thereafter (Figure 3), i. e. at a time when the regularcontrolling means 4, 5 are still unable to effect stopping, the bridginglever 12 is pressed down by means of the button 7, 8, through the stoplever 9. By reason of such downward movement of lever 12, the inclinedface 12c engages the click spring 6, at the nose 6b of the latter, andadvances the click spring nose 6a inwards in the direction of the frontplate 1. The bridging lever 12 being further pressed down, the nose 6!)enters the notch 12d and both parts 6, 12 now resiliently engage eachother to resist upward movement of the bridging lever. in this positionthe nose 6a of the alarm click spring 6 is in its normal stoppingposition, i. e. it stands in the path of the stop arm 11 on the hammerrod 10. The stop button 7 can be immediately released and the alarmwound up, so that the stop lever 9 disengages the pawl lie at the hammerrod 10 and is free from the spring and moves upwards.

As is apparent from Figures 1 and 3, the engagement of the bridginglever 12 and the alarm click spring 6 is maintained only as long as thealarm cam 4 has not reached a position in which the pin 5 rides on aflat portion of the cam. As soon as this has taken place, the alarmclick spring 6 will be advanced towards the front plate by the alarmgear 3, i. e. the cam 4 is able to disengage the nose 6]) from the notch12d (Figure 1), with the result that at the end of the bridging periodof about 1 to 1 /2 hours the engagement of the nose 6b in the notch 12dceases and the bridging lever 12 is returned to its initial position(not shown) by its associated retracting spring. From this moment on theregular controlling means of the alarm (the cam 4, pin 5 and associatedelements) effect the stopping and releasing operation.

What we claim is:

1. In an alarm clock having an alarm hammer shaft carrying a palletlever for cooperative engagement with a spring driven escapement wheelto produce oscillation of the alarm hammer shaft; the combination ofpermanent shut-cit means including a latch on the alarm hammer shaft, analarm stopping lever rockable between operative and inoperativepositions and resiliently l urged toward said inoperative position, andalarm stopping means for displacing said stopping lever to its operativeposition in which the latter is engageable with said latch to resistoscillation of the alarm hammer shaft, said latch being disengageablefrom said stopping lever in its operative position during winding-up ofthe spring driving the escapement wheel; alarm timing means including astop arm extending from the alarm hammer shaft, a click spring having aportion engageable with said stop arm to prevent oscillation of thealarm hammer she", said click spring being resiliently urged to aposition freeing said portion from the stop arm, an axially shiftablegear wheel for rotation by the clock mechanism, a hub rotatable withsaid gear wheel and having a trip shoulder and a cam portion thereon, anangularly adjustable, time-setting trip finger alternately engageablewith said shoulder and cam portion to axially urge said gear wheel inthe direction displacing said click spring into engagement with saidstop arm when said linger engages the trip shoulder and to free saidgear wheel for axial movement by said click spring to a position freeingthe latter for disengagement from said stop arm when said finger engagessaid cam portion; and temporary shut-off means including a rockablymounted bridging lever movable between an operative position in which itetfects interlocking engagement with said click spring and displaces thelatter into engagement with said stop arm and an inoperative position inwhich it is spaced from said click spring, and

means on said bridging lever engageable by said stopping lcver duringrocking of the latter to its operative position to effect displacementof said bridging lever to its operative position in interlockingengagement with said click spring,

said bridging lever being released from said click spring when thelatter is displaced by axial movement of the gear wheel as a result ofengagement of said finger with said trip shoulder.

2. In an alarm clock; the combination according to claim 1, furtherincluding means for resiliently urging said bridging lever to saidinoperative position of the latter, and wherein said click spring has anose projection thereon and said bridging lever is formed with aninclined surface engageable with said nose projection during initialcontact of said bridging lever with the click spring to displace thelatter into engagement with said stop arm, and a notch adjacent saidinclined surface to receive said nose projection during further movementof said bridging lever to its operative position so that said noseprojection then holds said bridging lever in its operative position.

Relierences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS919,892 Lapham Apr. 27, 1909 1,088,381 Treganza Feb. 24, 1914 1,181,180Stephenson May 2, 1916 1,199,858 Bailey Oct. 3, 1916 2,235,580 lunghansMar. 18, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 104,970 Germany Aug. 17, 1899

